VB6 test environment setup

[flyingpan]

newbie to VB6. We are currently working on a vb6 to .net conversion project. On our test machine, we have the legacy system installed pointing to production. We copied the legacy code to a new location, changed couple of xml files to pointing to dev web services. When we run the executable from that new location, we sometimes hit the production environment which is really bad. I just wanted to confirm that besides changing the xml file, if we manually run the commands (regsvr32 and regasm.exe) to point identified dlls to new location, we will be good? There is no option for us to build the application ourselves, using the legacy code in a new location seems to be our best hit.

[jdc2000]

If you do not have the source code for the VB6 application, then it would be hard to determine if there was something else that might need to be changed or not. There may be some hard-coded link that might also need to be changed.

A better idea to prevent access to the Production system from your test environment might be to block access to your Production system from that system.

[Elroy]

By your "production system", I assume you mean your production data files (i.e., the primary location of your system's data).

This sounds like a "general" programming question, without specifically having anything to do with VB6. For example, you said "XML files". I certainly know what an XML file is, but VB6 doesn't use them for file-path-pointers typically. In fact, without special procedures, VB6 doesn't even know how to read/write an XML file. So, telling us you changed your XML files means almost nothing.

Also, as jdc2000 stated, without the source code, you're really never going to know how your VB6 system was put together and/or how it accesses and finds your data files.

If you're trying to rewrite it from the VB6 executable(s), if it were me, I'd just install it all on a stand-alone computer, and execute it from there for purposes of the rewrite.

I've got no idea how comprehensive of a VB6 application you're talking about, but, the way you talk about it, it certainly doesn't sound trivial. Therefore, you're definitely going to get some time and expenditure into this thing. A couple of new computers is going to be the least of your costs.

Do you have the VB6 source code? If you do, maybe you could post a snippet of it here, and maybe give us some details about it: How many forms, how many BAS modules, are CLS (class) modules used, are there any custom user controls, what dependencies are there (both DLLs and OCXs)?

And, if you don't mind, maybe you could tell us whether your target language is VB.NET or C#.

Good Luck,
Elroy

[DataMiser]

It is hard to say what may need to be done without knowing what the program does internally. It could be hard coded to use specific files or db locations, it could have config files that are hidden or any number of other things. Of course you could put it on a seperate machine or VM that has no network connection to insure that it does not touch your live data under which conditions it may or may not work